Chapter 7 - The False Father
Ethan moved Lily out of the estate that afternoon.
Not to a hotel.
Not to family.
To a corporate safe apartment known only to Dana, Marcus, and the police.
Lily hated leaving her room.
She stood in the doorway holding her stuffed fox.
"Vivian come?"
"No."
"Promise?"
Ethan crouched.
"I promise I won't let her be alone with you."
He chose the words carefully.
No promises about forever.
No promises the law might break.
At the apartment, Lily finally slept.
Ethan did not.
At 2:08 a.m., Dana called.
"I found something in your medical records."
"My medical records?"
"The guardianship petition cited a painkiller dependency. I checked the pharmacy vendor tied to Mercer health benefits. There are fills under your name you never picked up."
Ethan sat up.
"How many?"
"Seven prescriptions over eleven months."
"Prescriber?"
"Dr. Howard Keller."
The fake therapist.
Ethan stared into the dark.
Someone had created a paper trail showing an unstable father with a drug problem.
"Is Keller real?"
"Very. Psychiatrist. License currently active. Private practice in Connecticut."
Ethan called Detective Lena Brooks, who was leading the investigation.
By morning, police had Keller in an interview room.
He claimed confidentiality.
Then investigators showed him the prescriptions.
His confidence cracked.
He admitted he had never treated Ethan.
He had signed records prepared by Daniel Pike.
For money.
"Why?" Ethan asked through the observation-room glass.
Brooks folded her arms. "Because people convince themselves paperwork isn't violence."
Keller gave them more.
Vivian had also paid him to create behavioral reports on Lily.
Reports describing aggression, hallucinations, and attachment disorder.
A four-year-old had been assigned diagnoses based on meetings that never happened.
Ethan felt physically sick.
Then Brooks received a message from the courthouse.
An emergency filing had just been submitted.
Vivian was asking for temporary custody of Lily.
Her claim was simple.
Ethan had become dangerous after discovering the alleged affair between Vivian and Daniel Pike.
Ethan stared at Brooks.
"Affair?"
She turned the tablet toward him.
Attached was hotel surveillance footage.
Vivian entering Daniel's room.
Then a second clip.
Ethan, apparently drunk, pounding on the same door hours later.
Ethan watched himself on screen.
Except it wasn't him.
The man wore Ethan's coat.
Ethan's watch.
May you like
Ethan's face.
A deepfake good enough to fool anyone who wanted to believe it.
